Ally Financial retains top spot in consumer auto finance volume

Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc. retained its No. 1 spot in consumer auto finance volume in 2012 for the second year in a row, the company said Friday, citing data from Experian Automotive.

That's for new- and used-vehicle volume combined. Ally was No. 1 in new and used in 2011 after slipping out of first place in 2008. In 2010, it was No. 1 in new vehicles but not in new and used combined.

Ally has made it a top priority to diversify — with a greater share of used vehicles, more leases and less dependence on incentives from its two biggest customers, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. It is also much more heavily concentrated on the U.S. after selling its international operations to GM Financial and others.

Ally said used vehicles accounted for 46 percent of its originations in 2012, up from 14 percent three years ago.

Earlier this week, Ally said it posted net income of $1.2 billion last year, compared with a $157 million loss in 2011. The company said its core pretax loss last year was $419 million, compared with a gain of $11 million in 2011.

Ally Financial is the former GMAC. GM sold a majority stake in GMAC in 2006 to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. As part of a government bailout, GM and Cerberus gave up most of their respective stakes in late 2008. GMAC became a bank holding company, later renamed Ally Financial.

The government continues to own 74 percent of the financier.

Before 2008, GMAC was the perennial No. 1 in the U.S., but its volume dropped in the fourth quarter of 2008, and it continued to operate at a reduced pace in 2009.

During late 2008 and early 2009, GMAC and other auto lenders had trouble borrowing money to make new loans. At the time, GMAC was also heavily invested in subprime mortgages, which tanked in the credit crisis. And even though it was independently owned, GMAC was more dependent then on GM, which went through bankruptcy restructuring in 2009.